The Magic of the Oceanfront – Location, Location, Location

Location, location, location. The ocean and the ocean. We want a location that lets us become part of something.

The three long-standing rules of real estate combined with our knife’s edge proximity to the Atlantic Ocean continue to play a decisive role in the way we select experiences, assess prices, plan trips, and ultimately seek something unique for ourselves and our families. In other facets of our lives, we look for great seats wherever we go whether it’s a plane trip, a concert, or our children’s ballet recitals. We circle the lot to find great parking places. We get as close to dinosaur exhibits as we can because we want to see how big they really are. We get close to the mirror because we want to see for ourselves. We get close to the field (they might be able to hear us!) and we pay more to do it. Vacations are no different–we want to get close because closer is better.

Right behind understanding location is understanding the why behind it. Location is easy to measure but hard to define in terms of what to expect and why we should pay more for it. That’s where we come in…for over forty years we’ve worked with hundreds of thousands of guests in an effort to find the right home at the right price that will create a great memory for everyone in the home. We also want to help you get close because we know closer is better.

A friend told us once about how she went to a modern-day take on Hamlet in England where the character of Hamlet actually smoked a cigar. She can’t remember what she paid for her second-row tickets but she could smell the cigar smoke and twenty years later she says that was the best play she has ever seen. That’s location that made a distinct memory possible. She even told us the kind of beer she ordered afterward because all her senses were alive and her mind was recording.

We know through experience here on the Outer Banks that closer is usually better and by closer we mean over 400 oceanfront homes to explore the right fit for you and your family’s recording.

Closer to the ocean is better because of what proximity does to your senses–you can smell the ocean on a northeast wind and you will always remember exactly what that smell was and where you were. You’ll watch your children squealingly pour down the beach walkway and spill onto the sand with eyes wide and faces cartoon-like in their expression. You’ll pause as you walk by oceanfront windows as the sun rises and the greens-blues of the ocean come into relief. You’ll waive other members of your family over because to really believe something you have to share it. You won’t have to hurry your senses because you’re there all week and you’ll get to see the story of the ocean and the sand through an entire week of suns, moons, raced footsteps, and re-visited memories. The ocean makes children run faster and adults walk more slowly because our minds are recording.

The ocean, it turns out, draws us in and captivates us. It captivates something different in all of us–some of us plunge in while others pause for a moment. Either way, at least once in your life come to stay on the oceanfront and let yourself be captivated, plunged, and absorbed by nature’s most dynamic self-expression. That same friend also told us once that good eyes were made for love and the ocean. She was right. Here’s to the oceanfront experience.

Clark Twiddy is the President of Twiddy & Company. He was born and raised on the Outer Banks and learned about the importance of location at an early age. He enjoys spending as much time as possible at the oceanfront.